Meeting Nessie
by Free To Imagine
Summary: Paul meets Nessie for the first time.


**A/N: This is dedicated to Lunamaria. She was the one who issued this challenge out to everyone (see endnote for more details), and this is my (somewhat late, though there was never a due date) response. Hope you enjoy. **

Jacob was holding a small girl in his arms whose long, curly copper curls spilled over his arms. I thought I recognised the colour somewhere, but I wasn't completely sure. She had one of her hands on his neck. He seemed far off – like he was listening to something.

He was looking at her; his whole attention seemed to rest wholly on her. It didn't take me long to recognise the look. It was the look of an imprinter who looked at his imprintee. The look that Sam gave Emily; that Jared gave Kim; that Quil gave Claire. The same look that I gave to my Rachel.

Then that meant that she was… It dawned on me in a flash of knowledge, and I stiffened, unknowingly. Of course I had known that she was coming to the bonfire. We all knew. But it was something completely different to have the girl, the monster that was supposedly not a monster right in front of me.

She hopped down from his arms, his legs still moving. It was graceful, and not natural. She was pale – as pale as a vampire – but had rosy cheeks. Her eyes were a chocolate brown, the same as Bella's had been Quil had told me last night when he'd come over to Emily's when I'd been there.

And I could see that. I could see how similar she was to her parents. From the copper hair I now recognised from the mind reading leech and the pale skin that was hard to tell whose side she'd gotten it from, to the eyes.

It was all very hard. Because I wanted to shred her for being from the parentage that she was from, but I couldn't. She looked so angelic, which probably made it worse. She was more beautiful then Claire was, and I've sat in Quil's head for over a year with his thoughts on her. Not that it's hard to hate her anyway.

She was graceful, and severely advanced for her age. She could walk without an ounce of hesitation. And I had no qualms with thinking that she wouldn't have trouble with attacking anyone.

She'd drink blood, no doubt. Not that I had much of an idea what her diet was, if any. Apparently she ate human food, but who knows. Sam, Quil, Embry, Leah and Seth were the only ones that had met her. That meant I knew little about her and how she went about feeding and life.

I didn't want Rachel anywhere near her. No matter how much Jacob had said that she wouldn't hurt anyone. That Sam agreed first off, only a little grudgingly. It was only because… well, I didn't quite know why he'd agreed, he just had. Something to do with it being a good idea, but I never really heard.

She walked beside Jacob towards Emily and Sam. Emily greeted her, smiling. Sam seemed a little uncomfortable, like I think every other wolf here was, but he was polite towards her.

I didn't hear her speak, but her lips moved. She was talking. She could speak.

I could feel Rachel's approach before I turned around. She stood beside me, slipping an arm around my waist. She hugged closer to my large frame, and I hugged her back, putting my own arm around her small waist.

'Is that…?' she asked quietly, not saying her name. She sounded in awe.

'Yeah, looks like it,' I murmured back.

She didn't turn her attention off the little girl who looked about three or four, but my gaze had found her face again, and I had no urge to take it away.

'She's beautiful,' she breathed.

The small girl had nothing on Rachel, though. Sure, she was pretty, but it was in an unnatural way. Rachel was beautiful in a natural way. It the perfect way.

Finally, she turned to look back at me. 'Do you agree?' she asked me, a little apprehensively.

I shook my head quickly. 'No, the only person I think is beautiful is you,' I whispered.

'But you must see the –' she started to argue, but I cut her off.

'Yeah, she's pretty, but it's unnatural.'

She mused that over, finally seeing my point of view. She decided after that that she was going to go say hello to Jacob, but I didn't take my hand off her waist. I didn't want to see her go any closer to the little girl. The half-vampire, half-human. Who seemed fine on the surface, but who could probably do Rachel a lot of damage.

'Do you want to come with me?' she questioned.

I decided that since I couldn't stop her - even though I wanted to desperately because _she_ was the unknown, even _if_ there were others of her kind - that I would go with her.

I could protect her, at least.

She walked up to the little girl, whose name I still could not remember because there was no need to remember it. She was the leeches' child, or Jacob's imprint in the pack. That was how she was always thought of; always called when she came up in discussions. And by those who knew of her existence that wasn't a wolf, she was known as _her_. _The girl_.

'Hey Jake,' Rachel said casually, walking over to give him a hug. I had to drop my arm, but _she_ wasn't too near him at the moment. She was talking to Claire. I wondered how Quil thought about that, but I guessed he was alright, because his attention wasn't even on her at that current moment, which was rare.

'Hey,' he replied.

She looked over to _her_ and cocked her head to the right. 'Could I meet her?' she finally asked, turning back to her brother.

Jacob eyed me carefully, asking: _I know you're nervous, are you sure you want this? It's your imprint, I'll say no if you…_ I nodded, letting him know that I was going along with something that I thought was too risky, but I wanted to please Rachel, and make her happy, and meeting her brother's world was something that would. She hadn't stopped talking about today since she found out a week ago. Meeting the child seemed like a big thing for her.

He turned to the copper child and beckoned her over with a look in his eyes that meant he wanted her now. I was surprised a little at how much she seemed to understand from that one look.

She graced over, coming to a stop in front of Rachel. She was slim, I noticed. Well defined and without the baby fat.

'And what's your name?' Rachel asked, crouching down to her level. Her voice was as if she was talking to a baby. The girl didn't seem that pleased about that. She glared. Full on glared at her, but only for a moment. She let her face smooth over soon after.

'Renesmee,' she replied perfectly. She had a musical voice like other leeches did. It seemed that there wasn't much human in her at all. 'But you can call me Nessie, if you want. Most people do.'

She spoke like an adult. It was scary. Unnatural.

Rachel seemed quite taken a back by her language, and how well she spoke. I could see clearly on her features what she was thinking. _You're smart, aren't you_, she was saying in her head.

'Well it's nice to meet you Nessie,' she said, holding out her hand. I stiffened, but said nothing. She seemed to jump a little at the touch between her hand and Nessie's, but shook it nonetheless.

Nessie looked up at me when Rachel stood up. 'And who are you?' she asked me, confident.

'Paul.'

She held out her hand for me to shake, and I held up my eyebrow at it. She was more advanced then I had assumed. She was only born eight months ago, but she seemed more mature then some of the pack.

I placed my rather larger hand in hers, and shook. Her skin felt warm under my touch, and I jumped a little too. No ones felt warm to me except other pack members. Her grip was firm, and I could tell that she was shaking my hand harder then she was shaking Rachel's.

Her smile was large as she looked back at Jacob, who told her that Emily looked like she needed help. Nessie didn't look like she'd be much help; more like a nuisance. She skipped off happily to Emily and started carrying a large tray of mouth watering raw sausages to the newly burning fire.

On top of everything, she was strong and obedient. I shook my head, trying to shake the surprise once again forming over me.

'She's _warm_,' Rachel was commenting to Jacob.

'I told you she was,' Jacob smirked back, teasing. I knew that he had proudly told her about Nessie, but I never found out how much.

'And intelligent.'

He was like a proud parent as he agreed again.

I took my eyes off Rachel again to have a glance at what Nessie was doing, and I saw she was talking to Seth, who was wearing that goofy smile again and talking adamantly back.

I sighed. There wasn't that much wrong with her, when it came down to it. _Really_. Though I wasn't quite sure about the diet. She did look to understand where the boundaries where, and she stuck within them, I guess.

It wasn't a surprise the next time I phased that she was a big topic of discussion and thought when I patrolled. I was like minded by my brothers. Nessie was alright, but it was uncomfortable and a little unnerving not knowing what she was and how she was going to react.

Maybe time would make it better. But I had no urge to like her, though I could see from the moment that Rachel met her, she would want me to. And what Rachel wants, I only desperately want to give her.

**A/N: Again, this was for a challenge that Lunamaria set out when she wrote Lightside. The challenge was to write any member of the pack (or several of them) finding out about Jacob imprinting on Nessie, or meeting Nessie. As you can see, I've done Paul. **

**I'm sorry for taking such a long time to complete this challenge. I got writers block, then I forgot, and then I had no idea who I was going to do. But finally, I've done it. **

**This is a complication to Lightside also. You do not need to read it (obviously). Although I do highly suggest you do. It's about Sam's reaction to Jacob imprinting. Read it. It's very good. **

**Last thing: I, myself, challenge anybody to do the same. It can be either a pack member, or an imprint. **

**I hope you enjoyed this and please review. I seem to only get about 1 review per hundred reads. **

**~ Free To Imagine **


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